US, UK, Australia and friends have cyber-war simulation

Business and government leaders from the US, UK and three othercountries will spend much of this week simulating and defending againsta large-scale cyber attack in an exercise designed to strengthencoordinated responses to what many perceive as a growing threat.
Participants of Cyber Storm II, which also include about 40private-sector companies, will enact a scenario in which "persistent,fictitious adversaries" launch an extended attack using websites,email, phones, faxes and other communications systems. Other countriesinvolved are Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
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Cyber Storm II comes two weeks after the Pentagon released an assessment of China's military might,warning the People's Liberation Army was intent on expanding itscapabilities for cyber warfare. It also comes amid intelligence reportsthat utilities in several countries have sustained cyber attacks that caused power outages.
This week's exercises are a follow up to Cyber Storm I, which wascompleted two years ago. They are mandated by an act of Congress thatrequires the public and private sectors to strengthen cyberpreparedness.
Companies including Cisco, Juniper Networks, Dow Chemical, AirProducts & Chemical and Wachovia are participating. Nine US statesand at least 18 federal agencies are also involved. They represent thechemical, information technology, communications and transportationindustries, which are considered ctritical parts of the infrastructure.The US Department of Homeland Security is hosting the event - no doubtwith danishes and plenty of Starbucks coffee.
The exercises are designed to sharpen and assess participants'ability to respond to a multi-day, coordinated attack and betterunderstand the "cascading effects" such attacks can have.
Results of Cyber Storm I pointed the the need for bettercoordination between various agencies and for a common framework forcommunicating among different parties.
While it's not necessarily a bad idea to simulate imagined threats,there's no indication that participants will delve into actualpractices that are known to put national security at risk. For example,last week came wordthat a private website operator regularly received official Air Forcecommunications containing sensitive information because his emailaddress was similar to those of military leaders. Additionally, aPentagon official has now confirmed that an attack last year on anetwork belonging to the Department of Defense involved a Windowsvulnerability and allowed the intruders to steal "an amazing amount" ofdata.
As these episodes make clear, sometimes we can be our own worst enemy, no simulation necessary.